Okay, I was looking around and seeing if I could change the theme of my Windows because I was getting bored of the same thing. I came across a site called Customize.org. I browsed around and found one that I liked, downloaded it and automatically tried to use it. Obviously I got some typical error. I went back and saw that I needed some software so I just clicked what was in my face which happened to be: Ux Theme Multi-Patcher.

I downloaded, patched, rebooted and tried again. No luck. I then found out that this wouldn't work on SP2 or SP3. So, I went back and found: SP3 UxTheme Patcher 1.3. I downloaded, patched, and rebooted that and tried yet again. No luck. I opened the SP3 Patcher back up to restore and that worked fine. But when I opened the first Patcher, the option was not available after opening it (there's only Patch or Cancel).

Now, I'm stuck on Windows Classic Theme and can't get back to Windows XP Theme or any other without getting an error: "The visual styles could not load because the file failed to load. Details: "

I read that having more than one uxtheme.dll could cause errors. I read that you should ONLY have one in your system32 folder. So I searched and found one in a $NtServicePackUninstall$ (blue text) and one in ServicePackFiles/i386. These two are the same 214kb size while the one in my system32 folder is 199kb (if that makes any difference; probably, but I wouldn't know).

I've already tried system restore and that did nothing. I searched for any type of virus/malware/spyware/etc and found nothing. I fixed my registry with a software and when I rebooted I still had the problem. I also had downloaded this "XP_Theme_Fix" and put that in my registry prior to all the scanning and repairing and that did nothing.

I still have Luna and Classic Theme and everything in my Resources>Theme folder. I just don't know what else I need to edit, install, or restore to to fix this... All of this nonsense over wanting a new look... really?

If you need more information, I can provide it. Just help me at least get back to XP Theme... THANKS!

Copy over the 214kb one to your system32 folder. If windows complains that the file is in use rename it to uxtheme.old then try copying it over again. Reboot and delete uxtheme.old. You can also take the file from your Windows CD.

Copy over the 214kb one to your system32 folder. If windows complains that the file is in use rename it to uxtheme.old then try copying it over again. Reboot and delete uxtheme.old. You can also take the file from your Windows CD.

Rename the 214kb one I'm copying over to uxtheme.old or the 199kb one already in there? Oh, and remember that there's two 214s, so I do that with both which would inevitably delete one of them?

Took the uxtheme.dll from ServicePackFiles, tried to move it to system32, said if I wanted to override, said no, renamed system32 file to '.old, tried again, said if I wanted to override again (this time it listed they were the same size but after ordering by name and finding the second one, turns out it was 199-200kb), named that new file '.old2, transferred over ServicePackFiles uxtheme.dll (was allowed with no problems), rebooted and when it came to I saw that ugly, annoying, typical, olive green bar at the bottom of my screen again.

Even though you've said you've fixed it already. When you come to wanting to patch another system try using UxStyle rather than UxTheme because it doesn't require patching, just a tiny process in the background.